What To Do This Second Saturday In Beacon
A Roundup Of February’s Big Arts Weekend
2025’s Beacon Open Studios’ Winter Show at The Yard.
Valentine’s Day may headline this weekend in Beacon, but it’s not the whole story. While there are a veritable feast of romantically themed events across the city, there are also some Second Saturday art happenings you won’t want to miss.
The Big Show
Beacon Open Studios’ 4th Annual Winter Weekend Art Show kicks off February’s Second Saturday celebration. The show opens at The Yard (4 Hanna Lane) on Friday, February 13th with an reception starting at 6 PM. Showcasing more than 50 works of local art with accompanying “movement installations,” the show will then be open from noon until 6 PM on Saturday and Sunday.
Called Power In Numbers, this curated, group show focuses on unity and togetherness. This year’s invitation for artist submissions came with a “plus-one,” which means each artist was asked to submit a fellow artist whose work they admired.
As part of the exhibition experience, Beacon-based dance and movement artist Skyla Schreter—also co-owner of LotusWorks Wellness (261 Main Street)—will be directing a series of “movement activations” in the gallery in response to selected pieces.
What To See And When At Power In Numbers
On Friday, February 13th, two “movement installations” will be performed at 7 PM and 8 PM during the opening reception.
“body: keeper of light” will be performed in conjunction with Laura Bochet’s painting “Devotion 1,” and “body: keeper of time” will be performed in physical dialogue with Michelle Silver’s “To Own A Body.”
There will be “dual movement activations” on Saturday February 14th at 2 PM, 3 PM, 4 PM, and 5 PM.
Works from Beacon artists including Anna West, Denise DeVore, Zeinab Manesh, Gary Buckendorf, and Michelle Silver will be shown and, in many cases, will be for sale. The show is curated by Beacon local, painter and photographer, Darya Golubina. You can explore the catalogue here.
BAU Gallery Opens Three New Shows
BAU Gallery, 506 Main Street.
Three shows open on Saturday, February 14th at BAU Gallery (506 Main Street), following its celebrated feminist-themed exhibition, CRAZY, which closed last weekend. Join the gallery for an opening reception on Saturday, February 14th between 6 PM and 8 PM for Rachel Dove and Dan Munkus’s: Material Systems, Fernando Martinez’s: To(2)o Meaning, and a collection of small works by member artists.
In the main gallery, Material Systems by Rachel Dove and Dan Munkus examines the utility, impact, and aesthetics of often-unseen external and inner systems. Dove, a ceramic artist, is described by the gallery as being “drawn to the hidden structures that operate just beyond perception, like seawalls restraining tides and ventilation shafts breathing beneath our feet.” And Munkus, who is primarily a painter, “uses abstraction to distill and analyze inner emotional and psychological systems, creating a material inquiry about the nature of self-reimagining.”
In To(2)o Meaning, Argentinean born Fernando Martinez explores how language can express the nature of words like eternity, love, and spirit, which we can name but never fully grasp. He uses wood and ceramics as base materials, often incorporating metal, plastic, string, and glass to create narratives about the effects of time and use, and the sacred and the profane.
The Beacon Room features photography, drawing, painting, sculpture and other media exploring the relationship between creativity and constraint. Participating artists showing their small works include Robin Adler, Karen Allen, Bob Barry, Joel Brown, Nate Hill, George Kimmerling, Soli Pierce, and others.
The shows run until Sunday, March 8th.
In Relation At Super Secret Projects
Stop by the opening reception for Super Secret Projects (at the back of Hyperbole/484 Main Street) new group show, In Relation, on Saturday, February 14th from 4 PM to 7 PM. The show’s theme explores how artists position themselves in relation to their subjects, materials, practices, and communities. It also considers relationships formed through looking, making, and repetition, as well as the social, cultural, and personal contexts that shape artistic work. The show runs until Saturday, March 7th.
Spaces Between Color At Distortion Society
Spaces Between Color continues at Distortion Society (155 Main Street). This stunning group exhibition focuses on the process of katazome; a traditional Japanese craft that uses cut-stencil and rice paste resist (a mixture applied through the stencil to block color from penetrating the surface) to develop imagery and design while celebrating the beauty in nature, objects, and life.
Spaces Between Color is a dynamic look at how traditional craft shapes contemporary practice. This group show, curated by Erina Pearl, features artists Erina Pearl, Chinatsu Nagamune, mizosasora, and Natalie Siu Munro, and it showcases a collection of 13 works embodying the meticulous nature of the technique that helped shape the folk-art movement in Japan.
Finally, welcome the Lunar New Year with a joyful celebration in Beacon on Sunday, February 15th. Ahead of the official start of the new year and next Saturday’s Beacon Spring Celebration Of Light, join Asian Enough at the VFW Hall (413 Main Street) for a vibrant lion dance performance by Mid-Hudson Chinese Language Center, a lantern-making workshop led by Beacon Spring Celebration of Light, plus delicious Asian-inspired home baked goods available for purchase. Tickets are available here.
For the full picture of what’s on this weekend, here’s our Valentine’s weekend and February roundup features, in case you missed them. And you can visit our Events Guide or Events Hub on WhatsApp for the latest updates and to buy tickets.
Until next time…
The Beacon Beacon🧡
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